It's 9AM

What's Your Favorite Show to Watch?

Chris Lowry

Jun 01, 2023

Saturday nights were for Love Boat.

Fantasy Island came on a little later but it was the weekend so we were allowed to stay up to watch it.

Sometimes Saturday Night Live.

If we were at Mamaw’s house, we were sent to bed after we heard “Da Plane, Da Plane.”

Tucked in and kissed good night.

Sunday’s were for Disney, at night at least and then the movie of the week.

Tuesdays we watched Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and Three’s Company.

I think Fall Guy came on Wednesdays.

Those were our must see days before there was must see TV.

Maybe we helped build the idea of it.

One of my Mamaw’s favorite Saturday night shows was Dance Fever.

I have no idea why she loved Danny Ontario so much, but she never missed it, even if I never heard her listen to anything but gospel music in her car.

And dancing was reserved for the waltz at her wedding and never again after that.

I remember Thursday TV in the 80’s, and random shows on different nights, but none with the impact of that Tuesday night line up.

What on earth was so appealing about Happy Days?

Was it the song I can still sing in my head and under my breath?

Was it the camaraderie of the gang, Richie, Malph, Potsie and The Fonz all hanging out at Arnold’s?

Meetings in the office?

Or Richie’s missing older brother, who showed up in episode one and disappeared and was never spoken of again?

I get the appeal of Three’s Company.

Who wouldn’t want to live with two beautiful women, even if they drove you crazy with hi jinks.

The world needs more hi-jinks.

Boundary pushing hi-jinks.

Mom would sit on one end of the couch, I’d anchor the other and my brother would park in between and we would all laugh or snort or just enjoy.

Maybe I was learning.

Learning about telling stories and spawning spin off’s.

The success of one often begets the other.

Happy Days gave us Jonie loves Chachi.

Three’s Company gave us Three’s a Crowd and The Ropers.

And memories.

Lots of memories.

I wondered once I grew up about “The Vault” where all of these shows live.

Studios sell them into syndication to make more money and the above line talent get residual paychecks every time the show played on cable or Nick at Night.

Not quite a permanent paycheck and one of the shows had the actors on contract, if I recall, which means they didn’t get paid past the first or second round of reruns.

If I were a studio head sitting on a library of material, I’d hire an entire department of geeks and editors to upload it all to AI and turn the celluloid to digital and the digital to multiple formats.

Animate the episodes using AI.

Update some references with voiceover.

Use the editors to recut the footage, add some B-roll and audio to tell new stories.

And create a studio youtube channel out of shows that once were.

A streaming Nick at Night.

I had an idea for our local news station to do something like it.

Channel 7, the ABC affiliate, has over 70 years of human interest stories in their archives.

Not the “news” but stories about festivals, and carnivals and people.

I told the news director to upload it all to a dedicated Youtube channel, and monetize through KATV merch and new ad sales on old stories.

They politely declined.

Which is sad.

Because before Happy Days, and Laverne and Shirley, and Three’s Company came on at 7:00 for us, we would watch the news.

How else do you think I learned about the motorized plow races, the pickle festival where one of the main games was called hide the pickle, or any of the history pieces shot at sites and homes across the state?

The news today doesn’t send reporters into the field as much.

Too much cost, and safety concerns and expense.

Maybe the same reason once good television shows sit in a vault after all the traditional syndication routes are worn out.

Now we can only watch them in our memories.

Did you have a favorite show growing up?

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What's Your Favorite Show to Watch?

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